A reply to a critique on Liebig's animal chemistry / by Lunsford P. Yandell.

  • Yandell, Lunsford P. (Lunsford Pitts), 1805-1878.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A reply to a critique on Liebig's animal chemistry / by Lunsford P. Yandell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    absence of water. We have cited cases in which, water having been used by the sufferer, death did not occur till after the lapse of twenty and sixty days; and the poor Lancashire operatives experienced, that keeping quiet in bed blunted the cravings of hunger. These facts are strikingly coincident with Liebig's philosophy of starvation, as indeed, are all the facts in our knowledge bearing upon the question, except the experiments reported in the last paragraph above, in which there is much reason to suspect some inaccuracy. Probably the animals were not plentifully supplied with wa- ter. But whatever may have been the caution with which they were conducted, we apprehend it will be difficult for the author of them to convince any practical farmer, that his lean pigs will endure starvation as long and as well as the fat ones. Upon Liebig's hypothesis, it is insisted, that persons with large chests, and who at the same time are full and rich feed- ers, ought to possess a higher temperature than those of an opposite configuration. No doubt, their power of resisting cold ought to be superior. But, continues the objector, Small chested and lunged individuals and sparing eaters of plain and even vegetable food possess a temperature as high as those do, whose chests and lungs are of the largest size; and who eat abundantly of an oily diet. p. 33. Now, what does experience teach regarding this matter? Our appeal shall be again to practical men—to agriculturists and travellers; and we ask, whether the observation is not universal, that individuals with the largest chests and sharp- est appetites, other things being alike, endure fatigue and cold the best? Such, unquestionably, was the observation of Parry and Ross, in their Arctic voyages, and such has been the experience of every man who has had to encounter ex treme degrees of cold. We see it every day in man and the inferior animals. A good digestion, and an ample supply of oxygen are the conditions of a high temperature. In syn- cope, the morbus coaruleus, and dyspepsia, the power to